This article appeared in the December 11-17, 2013 issue of SF Weekly. Kate Conger, Editor. Reprinted with an additional image.

Stephanie Eley, “Brown Paper Bag”

Catherine Clark wrote, “I wanted to choose strong artists—those pushing through clichés—not just strong work.” Artists like Cindy Shih, raised “to be self sufficient in order to find a sugar daddy, and to be a free-thinking woman so I could successfully assimilate to society.” Shih wrote that, “I took a mallet to the illusion, shattered my world, and I became a painter. I painted because it gave me a voice I never knew I had before, I painted because I no longer wanted to be silent.”